Sundogs
We often walk our dog Henry with cameras in our pockets. On Chautauqua Lake, especially on our side where we catch the sunsets, we don’t want to miss an opportunity to capture something beautiful, and almost every day something beautiful reveals itself. Jeff took two photos of this ice fisherman, but the beauty in this photo wasn’t fully revealed to us until later.
The photo is of Jevin Kelderhouse, one of the characters in my book. We didn’t know it was him, and didn’t catch his wave, until we “developed” the picture, the way we do these days, on the computer screen.
The pink sun dogs caught us by surprise, too. They are not an artifice of photography, but are “parhelia,” in scientific vernacular. They are made by the refraction of light from ice crystals in high clouds, or during very cold weather. The ice crystals, according to Wikipedia, are called “diamond dust,” and bend the sunlight, appearing as halos, or sun dogs.
“Angels,” I said to Jeff when I first saw the photo. “Jevin’s not fishing alone.”